Madam, - While we are all now painfully familiar with the recent emergence of the credit crunch, I am interested to know if your readers have experienced the dental crunch. I confess that I am a lapsed patient of many years standing and as such have had to readjust to the penal fees charged for routine and non-routine dental repairs.
Recently I was faced with the extraction of a wisdom tooth, for which I was quoted the princely sum of €600.
Luckily for me, I was on holiday in France when the tooth let me know in no uncertain terms that it needed to come out urgently. A friend directed me to a local dental surgeon in St Tropez, where it was extracted in three minutes at a cost of €64.
It is surely no wonder that dentists all over Europe are advertising their services in Ireland. - Yours, etc,
PAT O'CONNELL,
Mulgrave Street,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.